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Yılmaz, Cogent Education (2016), 3: 1172394http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2016.1172394

TEACHER EDUCATION & DEVELOPMENT | RESEARCH ARTICLE

Multiculturalism and multicultural education: A case study of teacher candidates’ perceptionsFatih Yılmaz1*

Abstract: The main purpose of the research was to determine the multiculturalism and multicultural education perceptions of teacher candidates. The research was designed as qualitative within this context and was patterned as a case study. The research data were obtained from the semi-structured interviews performed with 12 teacher candidates. In this research, teacher candidates evaluate the concept of multiculturalism positively because of the social structure. But, they are also aware of the importance of teacher education in the preparation of this infrastructure. The results of the study showed that especially in the transition of multicultural educa-tion, the teachers have primary responsibilities. And in this study, it also seemed that teacher education and teachers’ positive attitudes toward multicultural educa-tion have an important role to live together; to be peaceful and respectful; to accept all identities with their cultural properties without fear of the country’s separation.

Subjects: Cultural Studies; Education; Social Sciences

Keywords: multiculturalism; multicultural education; case study; teacher candidates

1. IntroductionThe concept of multiculturalism was first officially emerged in connection with the cultural, ethnic, social, and political demands of the national minorities and immigrants in the program of the Trudeau administration in Canada in 1971 (Fleras & Elliott, 2002; Guo, 2011). The concept of multi-culturalism was later used in Australia and the United States of America too, and Sweden officially

*Corresponding author: Fatih Yılmaz, Department of Elementary Education, Dicle University, Diyarbakir, Turkey E-mail: [email protected]

Reviewing editor:Mark Boylan, Sheffield Hallam University, UK

Additional information is available at the end of the article

ABOUT THE AUTHORFatih Yılmaz is Assistant Professor of Primary Education at Dicle University Diyarbakır and a faculty member of Dicle’s master program. He received his PhD in primary school teaching program at Anadolu University in 2011. His main research interests are education, teacher training, multicultural education, peace education, intercultural sensitivity, and ecology instruction.

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENTIn modern societies, it is expected of individuals to develop a positive attitude toward different cultures by protecting and living their cultures; and to take action as citizens of the global community by education. Improving individuals with those expected qualifications; families, educators, schools, and especially teachers have an important role. It can be said that the schools must be reformed according to the multicultural education and also the teacher should be trained by this way. Within this context, firstly we need to answer some questions for modification of education programs and schools. What do culture, multiculturalism, and multicultural education mean to teacher candidates, how do they put forward views about reflections of multicultural education on social, educational, and teacher education. This study responds to teacher candidates’ views about these points. Also, It is expected to lead in terms of multicultural education by this study.

Received: 20 October 2015Accepted: 23 March 2016Published: 13 May 2016

© 2016 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.

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Fatih Yılmaz

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adopted the concept in 1975 (Canatan, 2009; Yanık, 2013). However, multiculturalism which came out as a civil movement in 1960s in USA turned into a political movement within the context of civil rights that grew unprecedentedly especially to protect Afro-Americans’ own rights (Kahn, 2008; Ramsey, 2008; Thomas, 1994). Hence, the concept of multiculturalism caused new social, political, cultural, and educational definitions to be made.

Multiculturalism is based on the principle and concept of nation state which emphasize regional, linguistic, and cultural union. It has been accepted as a respond to the management of nation state by including the cultural diversity within in the political community (Journet, 2009; Kastoryano, 2009). Similarly, it comes across as a phenomenon that involves the idea of “humanism, human rights and equal civil rights” as well as being a “new political process” (Qi, 2011). It is also a natural concept that emerges from the coexistence of nations coming from different roots in terms of lan-guage, religion, nationality, culture, history, and geography (Anık, 2012; Çoban, 2010). Thus, multi-culturalism is associated with cultural diversity or differences that have been blended through culture (Parekh, 2000). The primary goal of the multicultural model is that it renews itself in accord-ance with the contemporary requirements of democracy and the right claims (Delanty, 2002).

Multiculturalism, in which the social structure is not uniform, different identities and cultures co-exist, differences are not regarded as conflicts but a source of richness, provides for the change of society (Banks & Banks, 2010; Parekh, 2000). Embracing, internalizing differences, and accepting them as a way of life is only possible through a multicultural education (Arnow, 2001; Fowers & Davidov, 2006).

Multicultural education is a movement dating back to the end of 1960s and the beginning of 1970s. It is an intellectual concept, a reformist movement and a process. Its basic idea is that all students have the equality of opportunities in education without being subjected to racial, ethnic, social class, or gender discrimination (Banks, 2001a, 2001b; Mwonga, 2005). This reformist approach advocates the transformation of schools, the fact that every student benefits from educational op-portunities equally, the improvement and sustainability of democracy, and the sustainability of lib-eral, fair, and equalitarian social structure (Gorski, 2009; Kim, 2011; Polat, 2009).

It dictates that all students who adopt the multicultural education mentality should be provided with a school and education environment having the equality of opportunities regardless of their races, ethnicity, languages, religions, genders, cultural backgrounds, sociocultural status, and sexual orientations. Providing the social justice, creating the equality of opportunities in education, getting to know different cultures and being unbiased toward them, reflecting the effect of culture on the education environment, and organizing the school programs according to multicultural principles are accepted to be the dimensions of multicultural education (Açıkalın, 2010; Ameny-Dixon, 2013; Banks & Banks, 2010; Ceyhan, 2012; Gay & Howard, 2000; Kahn, 2008). There are great duties and responsibilities of teachers for the above-mentioned to become true.

Attitudes and behaviors of teachers directly affect students and may cause them to exhibit either positive or negative behaviors and attitudes. It is stated in previous studies conducted on the subject that attitudes of elementary school teachers in multicultural education (Yazıcı, Başol, & Toprak, 2009); multicultural education contributes to the critical thinking abilities and awareness of teacher candidates (Gorski, 2009); teacher candidates are in need of multicultural education (Polat, 2009); preschool teachers are sensitive about multicultural education but they are not supported ade-quately; teachers become open to cooperation by means of multicultural education (Téllez, 2008); there is a decline in racist attitudes of students who have received multicultural education and cul-tural awareness is created among university students through multicultural education and their prejudice is overcome (Wright & Tolan, 2009). Inadequacy of studies on this topic in Turkey makes this research important. It is thought that studies to be performed on the multicultural education in teacher training will contribute to the change of teachers’ views on multicultural education.

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The main purpose of the research was to determine teacher candidates’ perceptions regarding multiculturalism and multicultural education. Based on this main purpose, answers to the following questions which are composed of subgoals:

• What are the perceptions of teacher candidates regarding multiculturalism?

• What are the perceptions of teacher candidates regarding multicultural education?

2. Method and data collection resourcesIn this study, case study pattern was used which is among qualitative research patterns. Data of the study were obtained from pre-service social sciences and classroom teachers who have education at education faculty. Semi-structured interview method was used in collection of data. Process car-ried out for data collection process and analysis is given in Figure 1.

In order to enable validity of study, transparency, being open to communication, and internal consistency points were considered. Transparency means explaining all the processes clearly by the researcher, being open to communication means making data meaningful for participants and re-searchers and internal consistency means making data coherent with each other. In this study, processes below were carried out depending on the points mentioned.

2.1. Preparing the questions and taking expert opinionsWithin the scope of the research, the studies in the literature were utilized to prepare the questions of interviews to be done. The questions were integrated with the purpose of the research based on the studies in the literature again. After the interview questions were finalized by the researcher, they were presented to an educational sciences expert, an expert who is doing studies on multicul-turalism and another expert of methodology for expert opinion. The interview form that was submit-ted to the expert opinion is composed of two parts: in the first part, there are personal details. These personal details include topics such as gender, ethnicity, religion, and ways of defining oneself. The second part includes seven questions concerning the views on multiculturalism and multicultural education. The number of questions was brought down to six in accordance with the expert opin-ions. It was especially suggested by experts to group the concepts of culture and multiculturalism under a question, these suggestions were found to be suitable by the researcher, therefore finalizing the interview form. The questions in the interview form are divided into three sections: questions of the first section are in relation with defining the opinions on culture, multiculturalism, and multicul-tural education. In the second section, questions cover the reflection of multicultural education on teacher training. There are questions regarding the social expectations from multicultural education

Figure 1. Data collection process and analysis. Data Collection

Process and Analysis

Reliability

Preparation of Questions and Expert Views

Interview and Formation of

Coding

Determination of Participants of

Study

Validity

Formation of Coding Keys

Comparison of Expert Views and Researcher Views

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and the reservations about it in the third section. In the study, questions below were asked to pre-service teachers:

(1) What do you understand of culture? There is a term called multiculturalism. What do you un-derstand of multiculturalism? Could you share your views on this issue?

(2) Can I learn your thoughts about the term multicultural education?

(3) What do you think about reflections of multicultural education on raising teacher? Can I learn your views about educational reflections of this?

(4) What are your views about reflections of multicultural education on social life?

(5) It is expected that multicultural education would effect education system as a result of its nature. What do you think of its reflections on education?

(6) Do you have further views and suggestions about this issue?

These questions are the main questions of the research. However, during interview various ques-tions were also asked depending on the interviewer. For example, interview was detailed with ques-tions such as “Could you open up the term multiculturalism?”, “What do you mean by social sense? Can you explain it?”, “Is this your personal view or expectation?”

2.2. Doing the interviews and codingThe interviews were done by the researcher and took about 35 min each. Each interviewee was in-terviewed separately and the interviews were recorded with a voice recorder. All participants were informed about the content of the interview and they verbally confirmed the content. The partici-pant supported the research voluntarily. Interviews were carried out by the researcher and all the interviews were carried out in the office of researcher. Office was chosen since the office environ-ment is suitable, access is easy, students feel themselves comfortable, and pre-service teachers chose this location. Pre-service teachers were given information about the environment where inter-views will be carried out, different environments (cafe, library) were also proposed to them, pre-service teachers find it suitable to have interview at the office. Documents of interview were analyzed by the researcher. In the analysis of interview, descriptive analysis was done depending on interview questions and on the basis of answers given by participants. Voice records of each interviewer was analyzed one by one, analyses were converted into written format. Then, the researcher reads writ-ten documents and a draft theme and codes were determined. These themes and codes were trans-formed in to separate coding keys for each interviewer. Coding keys were given to another researcher who is expert in the field and requested to analyze. Then, researcher and the expert discussed upon theme and codes. Depending on these discussions, themes and codes were determined on which consensus and dissensus were enabled.

2.3. Participants of the researchThe participants of the research are fourth-year teacher candidates who are studying at the depart-ments of social sciences teaching and primary teaching. These pre-service teachers were chosen because they have received the necessary education about the occupation of teaching at the point of knowledge, skill, attitude, and behavior; these pre-service teachers will now start their occupa-tional life and serve in their own fields as a teacher. Moreover, it was paid attention to choose partici-pants from different ethnic and religious origins. In this way, it was tried to determine how individuals from different ethnic and religious origins consider multicultural education. Apart from the charac-teristics above, participants were given information about the study, it was stated that all the inter-views would be recorded and they were asked whether they are volunteer or not. All the participants accepted that they were volunteers. None of the participants have received any education bout multicultural education. However, according to their personal experience and social structure they live in, three pre-service teachers have information about the term multiculturalism. The names of these teachers are Hüseyin, Zinnet, and Hülya. Hüseyin learnt Turkish at school though his mother language is Kurdish, Hülya has Alewi identity and was brought up in a social structure in which

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Muslim live, Zinnet lived in an environment which include different religious groups such as Ezidi, Muslim, and Assyrian people. Other pre-service teachers do not have different experiences about this issue. Yet they have personal information. Researcher is an instructor at elementary school which plays important role in choosing participants, because the researcher had no difficulty in ac-cessing and choosing the participants. Therefore, pre-service teachers who have education at class-room teaching program were chosen by the researcher, pre-service teachers who have education at social sciences teaching program were chosen by another instructor according to their suggestions. In the interview, participants were asked how to address them and they were requested to use their real name without their surname. This case was explained to them as that the researcher would directly make quotation from analyses, and the name of the participant quoted will be used directly. All the participants stated that there is nothing negative about using their own name. So the names of participants were given directly in the study. The details on the participants are given in Table 1.

2.4. Procedures followed to ensure the reliability of the researchThe interview coding key created by the research was submitted to the expert opinion. New encod-ings were created and agreed and disagreed codings were determined. In this procedure, Miles and Huberman’s (1996, p. 64) formula (reliability = agreement/agreement + disagreement) was utilized. The reliability of the research was calculated to be 92%. Again, according to Miles and Huberman (1996, p. 64), if the reliability is found to be 70% and above and the expert opinion agrees in qualita-tive studies, the study is accepted to be reliable. Accordingly, it can be said that this study is reliable.

3. Findings and interpretationsThe findings obtained from the interviews done with the teacher candidates are divided into four groups. These groups are culture and multiculturalism, multicultural education, educational gains of multicultural education and its reflections on teacher training, and reservations about multicultural social structure and education.

3.1. Culture and multiculturalismDefinitions concerning the concepts of culture and multiculturalism obtained from the interviews done with the teacher candidates are given in Table 2.

Table 1. Characteristics of participantsCharacteristics fGender

Female 5

Male 7

Department

Social sciences education 7

Primary education 5

Ethnicity

Kurdish 9

Turkish 2

Arab 1

Religion

Muslim 9

Atheist 2

Alevi 2

Yazidi 1

Total 12

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Teacher candidates’ opinions on the concepts of cultural and multiculturalism are as follows:

It is the reflection of our society’s way of life and thinking. Sort of our shared values. My acts outside, my upbringing, style, way of treating others, my family’s way of raising me. (Rükiye, shared structure)

Supra-identity is the body of shared values and the way of making judgments in accordance with our traditions. (Zinnet, supra-identity)

Among even the closest friends of mine, there are those who are Alevi, Sunni; the fact that they are all living together reminds me of multiculturalism. (Rükiye, richness and colorfulness of the social structure)

Two different cultures affecting each other. (Zinnet, cultural fusion and difference)

When you think about Mardin, for example, it is a multicultural city. Jews, Christians, Muslims live together there. It is a cultural fusion of people of several religions, coexistence of various cultures created by people coming from different places. For example, a Christian lives in his own way of life and with his own values. So does a Muslim. (Erdal, knowing each other and establishing empathy)

Multiculturalism actually means richness. You can see it in the United States of America today. You can see it in some European countries. There are three official languages in Switzerland. No one says “Let’s separate each other”. USA is a country that harbors many elements together and energize with the outer identity of American citizenship. I can advance this society by building on our culture. My mother cannot even speak a word of Turkish. Therefore, we grew up without hearing any Turkish. I went to the school with dread when I was first enrolled. I learned how to speak Turkish at the second grade. I did not do my homework for a year because I could not speak Turkish. Was not that a torment to me? I wish we had accepted that multiculturalism was richness then, therefore we had not experienced those traumas. (Hüseyin, different languages and ways of life)

One should remember that there are different ways of life in a society rather than a uniform culture, uniform lives. I think having these differences, transferring these cultures to the next generation plays a very important role in the development of this country. The point is such richness and differences should be imposed on the next generation properly. The way to do so is to adopt multiculturalism and accept differences as richness. (Mehmet, cultural fusion and difference)

As well as evaluating the culture within the context of shared values and structures, the teacher candidates mention about a definition of a tool that involves the supra-identities and differences. It

Table 2. Definitions of culture and multiculturalism by the teacher candidatesCulture

Shared values and judgments

Elements that comprise differences

Supra-identity

Shared structure

Multiculturalism

Cultural fusion and differences

Ethnic difference

Different languages and ways of life

Richness and colorfulness of the social structure

Knowing each other and establishing empathy

Recognizing and understanding others

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is also seen that the meanings of richness and colorfulness, ethnic difference, knowing each other and establishing empathy, recognizing and understanding others, cultural fusion and differences, different languages and ways of life is attributed to the concept of multiculturalism.

3.2. Multicultural educationIn the interviews done with the teacher candidates, they were asked what they thought about mul-ticultural education and the themes in Table 3 were created.

Teacher candidates’ opinions on the concepts of multicultural education are as follows:

We need to plan an educational system that can address everyone. A system in which there is no cultural assimilation. We should accept the different unconditionally. They should accept me the way I am. Because I want to speak Kurdish but I cannot express myself in every area. I am thinking in Kurdish but have to answer in Turkish at times. I mean, we need to localize the education, I should study my culture in education. A culture should not override or assimilate another culture. (Ruken, restructuring the educational system according to the cultural structure)

My culture is different. I wish they respected me. I had not been welcomed at first. My friends did not want to accept me among them. I am an Alevi. But I started to get to know their culture, the Kurdish culture. I did not prejudge them. They were interested in me being an Alevi. They asked me if I performed prayer, I fasted, and which one I regarded as my prophet. However, problems between us started to disappear, we started to understand each other as they got to know me, learned about my culture and vice versa. That is why I think there should be a multicultural education. (Hülya, training for respect for differences)

It is to provide education suitable for country’s people, society’s structure and succeed rather than caring about just some section of the society and giving the education in one culture. There are Kurdish, Alevi, Laz, Circassian people in our country, in this society. We are a very diverse society. This is a good thing. This country naturally needs all kinds of people. Not monotype individuals. We have a complex structure. We need to raise individuals according to our cosmopolite structure. We should construct our education so that the phenomenon of contemporary state we desire is understood. Otherwise, you would be trying to create monotype people if you tried to impose only a uniform type of education to people. (Yakup, restructuring the educational system according to the cultural structure)

When the opinions on multicultural education are examined, it is seen that the teacher candi-dates describe multicultural education as the basis of social tolerance and the training for recogniz-ing other cultures. In addition, education in the mother tongue, education of local values, and reconstructing the educational system according to the cultural structure are also the meanings which were attributed to multicultural education. While the teacher candidate, Hülya, regarded mul-ticultural education as an educational model that will mitigate prejudices and can form a strong school culture or social structure without cultural assimilation, Ruken and Yakup defined it as an educational model that includes teaching programs and educational activities which are prepared according to different cultures, in other words, address each individual of different cultures. In this sense, it is possible to say that the teacher candidates regard the concept of multicultural education

Table 3. Opinions of teacher candidates regarding multicultural educationTraining for respect for differences

The basis of social tolerance and the point of origin

Restructuring the educational system according to the cultural structure

Education of local values

Education in the mother tongue

Training for recognizing different cultures

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in a structure similar to Bank and Banks’ (2010) and as a multidimensional, reformist process which will facilitate the recognition of differences.

3.3. Educational gains of multicultural education and its reflections on teacher trainingTeacher candidates’ opinions on the educational gains of multicultural education and its reflections on teacher training are given in Table 4.

Teacher candidates’ opinions on the educational gains of multicultural education and its reflec-tions on teacher training are as follows:

We are different than each other. Our instructors tell us about individual differences every day. They expect us to do this at the class. The same thing should ensure that different cultures have a place in the educational system for themselves. That is why we need to adopt multicultural education. As long as different people such as Alevi, Kurdish, Turkish and Sunni people find themselves within the system, they will not be marginalized and they will recognize and accept those who are not like them. Recognizing different cultures will also contribute to the prevention of conflicts. I think stopping Kurdish-Turkish and Alevi-Sunni conflicts is only possible if we promote multicultural education. (Rukiye, stopping the marginalization)

You know the Kurdish language has just entered into the education. There are Kurdish lessons in schools now. It has begun at universities too. The students here will start to take it. Although we will not, lower grades will take it. There are a lot of elective languages such as Kurdish, Zaza language, Arabic, and Laz language. Both at universities and other schools. This will enable students to express themselves in their own languages. They will have a better understanding, a better comprehension and succeed better at school. People used to drop out of school or have difficulties since they did not speak Turkish. By this mean, this will no longer be the case. People in our region speak Kurdish. A teacher candidate who is Turkish will be able to communicate with the class better by learning how to speak Kurdish. What a wonderful thing it is! (Rıdvan, its effect on the quality of teacher and the academic achievement)

The education can be provided by introducing people’s way of life, suggesting the opinion that they are human, not a boogeyman. People do not know how to live together. They have not learned how to coexist. Since they could not learn to have an understanding, humanist attitude, this education might destroy the fear of separation in social relations. People will therefore treat each other tolerantly and approach others as a human and a valuable person in their relationships. (Ceren, bringing in respect and empathy).

As for teacher candidates’ opinions on the educational gains of multicultural education and its reflections on teacher training, it can be said that they think the quality of teacher training will in-crease and students’ academic achievements will get higher through multicultural education. They think that providing a multicultural education at schools will contribute to the upbringing of students who know and respect differences, do not marginalize others and can establish empathy. It can be

Table 4. Teacher candidates’ opinions on the educational gains of multicultural education and its reflections on teacher trainingStopping the marginalization

Preventing difference-based social conflicts

Creating a cultural awareness

Bringing in respect and empathy

Creating a unbiased social structure

Increasing the quality of teacher training

Ensuring the academic achievement

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said within this context that a social structure which is away from prejudices and in which differ-ence-based conflicts are avoided can be achieved through multicultural education.

3.4. Reservations about multicultural education and its reflection on the social structureTeacher candidates who were interviewed with stated their reservations about multicultural educa-tion and its reflections on the social structure. The reservations of the teacher candidates are given in Table 5.

Here are the opinions of the teacher candidates’ on reservations about multicultural social struc-ture and education:

The biggest fear in the multicultural education is separation. Adverseness, contrast, and separation at the same time. Separation means not being open to other cultures. It is some kind of fascism. Fascism is basically not racism. The religion-oriented racism, humiliation of people, regarding some as different and superior, others as lower are fascism. The true discrimination and fear is this. This mentality would separate, marginalize and destroy us. (Harun, the fear of division)

I am Kurdish. I learned Kurdish later and had difficulty while learning Turkish. Kurdish is spoken at home and on the street but I started taking education in a language I do not speak. Would not it be better if I studied in my own language other than the official language? Some say the country will split up. Why? Would it hurt if everyone spoke in their own language? There is education in the mother tongue beside the official language in many European countries. None of them have split up. Likewise, why would anyone look for anything else if they placed themselves in the educational system? Education would hold us together and we could look at a brighter future. There is a concern about whether our region, the Southeastern Region of Anatolia, will split up due to what happens. It will not happen. This is a futile fear. (Hüseyin, concerning about that education in the mother tongue will resolve the social structure)

Multicultural and multi-language education will cause problems at the beginning. All kinds of transformation realized without phasing the society and preparing the infrastructure will receive reaction by nature. The society should be prepared for this first. Education in a different language may cause a trauma in the social structure. For example, what kind of education will be provided at universities in this sense? It is not clear yet. I mean, our universities are not ready yet. Multi-language education will bring along many structural problems such as preparing a program, training teachers accordingly, assigning the trained teachers. It may take long to overcome this. (Hülya, difficulty of a multi-language education)

It can be said that the teacher candidates share a perception that multicultural education may split up the social structure. They stated the idea that especially education in the mother tongue may cause the country to split up, the concern about autonomous regions may emerge and the reservations on that a multi-language education may cause structural problems. The topics about which the teacher candidates have reservations underline that there is still an intellectual uncer-tainty about multicultural education in Turkey. Yet, multicultural education represents a reformist process that enables differences to protect themselves and integrate with others, and a

Table 5. Teacher candidates’ reservations about multicultural education and its reflection on the social structureThe fear of a divided country

Concerning about that education in the mother tongue will resolve the social structure

Potential of autonomous regions

Difficulty of a multi-language education and possible structural problems

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multidimensional educational structure that enables every individual to be able to be successful. It can be said within this context that it is necessary to investigate the reservations about multicultur-alism and, if any, prejudices more deeply and to inform the educators as well as the whole society about multiculturalism so that multicultural education can be fully adopted in Turkey.

4. Discussion and conclusionIn this study, depending on the views of pre-service teachers who have education at classroom teaching and social sciences teaching education program, views about multiculturalism and multi-cultural education were tried to determine. Pre-service teachers put forward views about culture, multiculturalism, multicultural education, and reflections of this on social, educational, and teacher education.

While defining the concept of culture, the teacher candidates agreed on the conventional ele-ments such as shared values and judgments, supra-identity and shared structure. This approach coincides with well-accepted definitions of culture (Journet, 2002; UNESCO, 1982). As for the defini-tions of multiculturalism by the teacher candidates, they described cultural difference, ethnicity, diversity of language and way of life, coexistence without marginalizing others, knowing each other, and establishing empathy as the richness of the social structure. It is seen that these approaches show parallelism with the definitions of the concept of multiculturalism. Multiculturalism is a con-cept defined with respect to social gender differences, sexual orientations, and sociocultural and economic differences (American Psychological Association, 2002; Anık, 2012; Parekh, 2000).

The teacher candidates emphasized the different ways of life too while explaining their opinions on the concept of multiculturalism. They also stated noncommittally while emphasizing the differ-ence of the ways of life that there are sexual orientations and social gender differences. It can be inferred in this sense that there is abstention from talking especially about differences of sexual orientation in Turkey and teacher candidates’ perceptions and differences covered by multicultural-ism are parallel with each other.

The teacher candidates evaluated the concept of multicultural education on the basis of differ-ences and stated that the social structure is not homogenous, different structures coexist and they care about multicultural education so that these structures can protect their integrity and survive. It can be said that the definition of multicultural education on the basis of differences and cultural diversity by the teacher candidates is a correct one conceptually. It is desired all over the world that local languages coexist with official languages and maintain their sustainability. A similar situation was stated by the teacher candidates. The teacher candidates expect education in the mother tongue, reconstruction of the educational system, ensuring the social integration, and survival of local values through education. Bennett (2003) defined multiculturalism as “local cultures finding themselves within cultural values without being assimilated.” Advancing this perspective a bit fur-ther, the teacher candidates regarded it as cultural values finding themselves within the educational system from all aspects along with the acceptance of self without being assimilated.

Zirkel (2008) stated that multicultural education increases students’ academic achievements. Individuals will naturally be successful in an education system in which they find themselves in all senses. A student who gets the chance to express himself/herself in the mother tongue will improve academically and express himself/herself even better. In fact; with the statement of Rıdvan, who is one of the pre-service teachers “in fact this would enable students to express themselves in their own language. They would understand better, comprehend better and would be better at the school. In the past people used to or had to quit school because they do not Turkish. In this way this case would end. Also, people speak Kurdish in our region. A Turkish pre-service teacher would learn Kurdish and communicate better with the class. Is there anything better than this?”, he emphasized the effect of mother language on academic success and stated that multicultural education would have positive contribution on academic success when students have education in their mother lan-guage. Based on this fact, the teacher candidates think that education in the mother tongue will

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increase students’ academic achievements. It covers the academic achievement factor of the sub-ject. To provide multicultural education, suitable teachers are needed. In this sense, there is a find-ing that raising pre-service teachers who regard difference as cultural richness and perceive respect and showing empathy as a skill, who have cultural sensitivity, and know the importance of their role in unprejudiced society would increase both teacher quality and enable development of society through individuals with these characteristics. In fact, Chen and Starosta (2005) and Davis (2005) emphasize that pre-service teachers who play active role in raising new generation should adopt cultural awareness, cultural sensibility, and cultural skill. Findings obtained in the study are compat-ible with those mentioned here.

According to Ameny-Dixon (2013), multicultural education increases the productivity, overcomes the prejudice, develops interpersonal communication, creating a cultural awareness, and prevents social conflicts. The teacher candidates believe in the importance of multiculturalism especially for creating an unbiased society. They are aware that education is the most efficient way available to know different cultures and create awareness about differences and that the concepts of respect and empathy play an important role in the school learning. Teachers who have been trained well and are aware of the qualities frequently emphasized are needed to comprehend the importance of these and reflect them on the social life. At this point, teacher training should be constructed with a new model and understanding. Since multicultural education aims to bring teacher candidates in the above-mentioned qualities, these gains will increase the quality of teacher training and ensure social integration. In addition, the fact that teachers with these qualities know how to treat different individuals they meet at schools will increase confidence of students and help them to increase their academic achievements.

The concept of multiculturalism is defined as all sections within a social structure being able to express their identities freely. Such structures welcome the cultural diversity. Moreover, as stated by Canatan (2009), the concept of “multiculturalism” may cause the concept of “multiculturalist” to arise. Arguing that social structure should be maintained, multiculturalists advocate that different cultures can live their social lives and expect them to adapt to the social structure. Unlike the con-cept of multiculturalist that brings along the recognition of superior cultures by subcultures and as-similation on a limited level, multiculturalism argues a normative structure and provides different cultures with legal status. The interviewed teacher candidates stated that the society concerns about a split up by the nature of multicultural education’s normative structure. They emphasized the idea that especially education in the mother tongue may strengthen the possibility of resolving the social structure and this is unacceptable among some sections of the society. Although the teacher candidates are right about such possible concerns and thoughts, one should remember that con-cerns may be eased and possible problems may be overcome through transition from the concept of multiculturalist to multiculturalism. Another object at issue is the difficulty of multi-language educa-tion. The infrastructure of the multi-language education may be reinforced by training qualified teachers. Organizing teacher training according to multi-language programs at universities and pro-viding an education that meets social demands come across as approaches that will solve the problems.

Banks and Banks (2010) states that multiculturalism is composed of the dimensions of content integration, knowledge construction, prejudice reduction, equity pedagogy, and empowering school culture and social structure. Even though multicultural education has a complex and multi-dimen-sional structure, certain dimensions focused on mainly by educators are reflected on the educa-tional system. It can be said within this context that the practice of multicultural education is not that efficient and an integration either in the educational system generally or on the level of alterna-tive educational institutions exclusively will contribute to the complete practice.

For teacher training, especially instructing classes at higher education institutions should be re-constructed in such a way that they include specific instructing methods and practicing levels for students of different cultures. Through this equity pedagogy-based arrangement, teachers who are

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aware of the effect of cultural differences during knowledge construction and have the capability of increasing each student’s achievement can be trained. It would also be useful if programs included lessons to enable teacher candidates to know their own cultures and different cultures, and if any, overcome their current prejudices. In this sense, adopting and practicing multiculturalism and multi-language-based approaches at teacher-training institution is important for increasing the quality of teacher training.

Programs or lessons provided at schools can be transformed and schools that can meet students’ needs or class diversity within schools can be provided so that multicultural education is practiced on other educational levels and in the educational system generally. As stated by the teacher can-didates, differences of mother tongue and belief may leave them at a disadvantage at their schools. In other words, there may be disintegration between the education the students take and their cultural characteristics. It has been aimed that schools can meet different cultures’ requirements through arrangements in teaching programs and the addition of elective lessons in Turkey. It would be useful if these arrangements mainly based on content integration, a dimension of multicultural education, were supported with rearrangements in teaching programs or alternative educational institutions to be opened, therefore answering individuals’ needs more comprehensively. Schools are institutions at which individuals of different cultures study together and that is a small-scale example of the society. It can be said within this context that students’ achievements will increase and it will be more likely that they will become citizens of world if they can study at schools that en-able them to protect and live their cultures and preserve the heterogeneousness concealed under the homogeneousness through individuals coming from different cultures.

FundingThe author received no direct funding for this research.

Author detailsFatih Yılmaz1

E-mail: [email protected] Department of Elementary Education, Dicle University,

Diyarbakır, Turkey.

Citation informationCite this article as: Multiculturalism and multicultural education: A case study of teacher candidates’ perceptions, Fatih Yılmaz, Cogent Education (2016), 3: 1172394.

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